Biden: Your father's Republicans not the same 'cats' as today

Vice President Joe Biden came to the Twin Cities on Tuesday to talk about cats, strangulation and to make a prediction.

Biden went against prevailing political tea-leaf readers and predicted that Democrats would retain control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

“I am absolutely convinced if we make it a choice, and we fight back, we will do very, very well,” Biden told 350 attendees of a fundraiser for DFL gubernatorial candid

Biden (not in Minnesota)

ate Mark Dayton. “If we organize our voters, we will do very well. If we don’t, we won’t.”

Biden took aim at the current crop of Republicans.

“This is not your father’s Republican Party,” he said. “This is the party of repeal and repeat. This is the Republican Tea Party. These are not the same brand of cat you are dealing with.”

Biden said he’s a little miffed at Republicans and what he called their newfound devotion to fiscal restraint. He said the last three Republican presidents spent down surpluses built up by Democrats and left Americans facing deep deficits.

“If I hear one more Republican tell me about balancing the budget, I am going to strangle them,” he said.

A Duluth native who just barely lost Virginia's GOP gubernatorial primary said that politicians have not gone far enough in condemning the left for violence during a rally of white nationalists in Charlottesville. "I think that the left is going to try to use this as an excuse to crack down on conservative free speech," said Corey Stewart. "I think they're going to try to use this as an excuse to remove more historical monuments."